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Monday, January 18, 2016

Pennsylvania Station

Executive summary by darmansjah

Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or
just Penn Station, is a major intercity train station and a major commuter rail
hub in New York City. Serving 430,000 passengers a day(compared to 700,000 across town at Grand
Central Terminal) at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, it is one of
the busiest passenger transportation facilities in the United States and in
North America.

The station is located in the underground levels of
Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue
and between 31st and 33rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. It is located
underneath Madison Square Garden and lies in proximity to other Manhattan
landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald
Square.

Penn Station is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, an
electrified passenger rail line extending southward from the New York
metropolitan area to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. and northward to Boston.
Intercity trains are operated by Amtrak which owns the entire station, while
commuter rail services are operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey
Transit. The station has twenty-one tracks fed by six tunnels,

Penn Station saw 8.4 million Amtrak passenger arrivals and
departures in 2010, about double the traffic at the next busiest station, Union
Station in Washington, D.C. Penn Station's assigned IATA airport code is ZYP.
Its Amtrak and NJ Transit station code is NYP.

Connections are available within the complex to two stations
of the New York City Subway, and to many bus services at street level. The two
subway stations are at opposite ends of the complex (Eighth Avenue Line &
Seventh Avenue Line) and otherwise unconnected.

The current Penn Station is situated completely underground
and is located underneath Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street, and Two Penn
Plaza. The station spans three levels underground with the concourses located
on the upper two levels with the train platforms located on the lowest level.
The two levels of concourses, while original to the 1910 station, were
extensively renovated during the construction of Madison Square Garden, and
expanded in subsequent decades. The tracks and platforms are also largely
original, except for some work connecting the station to the West Side Rail
Yard and the Amtrak Empire Corridor serving Albany and Buffalo, New York.

Unlike most train stations, Penn Station does not have a
unified design or floor plan but rather is divided into separate Amtrak, Long
Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit concourses with each concourse
maintained and styled differently by its respective operator. Amtrak and NJ
Transit concourses are located on the first level below the street-level while
the Long Island Rail Road concourse is two levels below street-level. The NJ
Transit concourse near Seventh Avenue is the newest and opened in 2002 out of
existing retail and Amtrak backoffice space. A new entrance to this concourse
from West 31st Street opened in September 2009. Previously, NJ Transit shared
space with the Amtrak concourse. The main LIRR concourse runs below West 33rd
Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Significant renovations were made to
this concourse over a three-year period ending in 1994, including the addition
of a new entry pavilion on 34th street. The LIRR's West End Concourse, west
of Eighth Avenue, opened in 1986. The Amtrak concourse, the largest in the
station and originally built for the Pennsylvania Railroad maintain the
original 1960s styling and have not been renovated since the new Penn Station
was built.

Tracks 1–4 are used by NJ Transit, and tracks 5–12 are used
by Amtrak and NJ Transit trains. The LIRR has the exclusive use of tracks 17–21
on the north side of the station and shares tracks 13–16 with Amtrak and NJ
Transit.

As of April 3, 2011 the public timetables show 212 weekday
LIRR departures, 164 weekday NJ Transit departures, 51 Amtrak departures west
to New Jersey and beyond (plus the triweekly Cardinal), 13 Amtrak departures
north up the Hudson, and 21 Amtrak departures eastward.

In the 1990s, the current Pennsylvania Station was renovated
by Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and New Jersey Transit,
to improve the appearance of the waiting and concession areas, sharpen the
station information systems (audio and visual) and remove much of the grime.
Recalling the erstwhile grandeur of the bygone Penn Station, an old four-sided
clock from the original depot was installed at the 34th Street Long Island Rail
Road entrance. The walkway from that entrance's escalator also has a mural
depicting elements of the old Penn Station's architecture.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, passenger
flow through the Penn Station Complex was curtailed. The taxiway under Madison
Square Garden, which ran from 31st Street north to 33rd Street half way between
7th and 8th Avenues, was closed off with concrete Jersey barriers. A covered
walkway from the taxiway was constructed to guide arriving passengers to a new
taxi-stand on 31st Street.

Despite the improvements, Penn Station continues to be
criticized as a low-ceilinged "catacomb" lacking charm, especially
when compared to New York's much larger and ornate Grand Central Terminal.The New York Times, in a November 2007 editorial supporting development of an
enlarged railroad terminal, said that "Amtrak's beleaguered
customers...now scurry through underground rooms bereft of light or
character." Times transit reporter Michael M. Grynbaum later called Penn
Station "the ugly stepchild of the city’s two great rail terminals.